Heard spelling

gynecium

Spelled gynoecium. a Latin vowel pair

Why not simply spell it gynecium?

Because the lone e hides the join. The word is gyne plus oikos, and the o belongs to the second half.

English has been dropping that o for a century: oesophagus became esophagus, diarrhoea became diarrhea, oecology became ecology. Botany kept it here. Gynoecium and androecium are a matched pair, and the oe is what makes the pairing visible on the page.

Say

guy-NEE-see-um, and jy-NEE-see-um is heard just as often

Letters

G-Y-N-O-E-C-I-U-M